


A Heart like the Moon

by PipTheMagnificent



Series: Zutara Week 2020 [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Fluff, Future Fic, Post-Canon, Rebirth, Romance, Spirit World (Avatar), Vignettes, Zutara Week, Zutara Week 2020, Zutara Week Day 7: Rebirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:33:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25651393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PipTheMagnificent/pseuds/PipTheMagnificent
Summary: Zuko and Katara dance their way through life.A series of vignettes showing the progression of their relationship.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Zutara Week 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1849897
Comments: 12
Kudos: 70





	A Heart like the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Zutara Week Day 7: Rebirth
> 
> Title is from A Closeness by Dermot Kennedy which is such a Zutara song, you should totally give it a listen.

_i. dawn_

They crisscross the dance floor awkwardly.

Katara never feels quite comfortable on the huge ballroom floor. It’s been a year and a half since the war ended, a year since the Fire Nation began to settle under Zuko’s rule: plenty of time for her to attend numerous celebrations.

She should be used to it. But she’s not. She can’t help that she doesn’t fit.

She’s used to loose movements and icy floors, not flowing gowns and strictly choreographed dances. The judging stares and whispers she hears from perfectly coiffed only accentuate the difference between herself and the others.

It would help if the rest of her friends were there, others not used to being in the Fire Nation court, but they’ve all gone. Toph is starting a metalbending school in the Earth Kingdom. Aang is traveling constantly between kingdoms, performing his duty as a symbol of peace. (That one, she’s kind of not upset about. With him gone she doesn’t have to face discussing that awkward kiss he gave her at the end of the war.) Suki has reunited with the Kyoshi Warriors, and they’ve become King Kuei’s new bodyguard force after the Dai Li proved traitorous. Sokka splits him time between visiting her in Ba Sing Se and staying in the Southern Water Tribe.

Katara had gone back for a month with him, but it didn’t feel like home anymore. The small village she remembered had been turned all too quickly into a massive city with the help of Northern waterbenders. Even if it had still been the small village she remembered, she wouldn’t have belonged anymore. After a year of traveling the world, she simply wasn’t content to stay in the tribe and go back to mending clothes and watching the children. She was a master waterbender, for Tui’s sake!

So she had headed back to the Fire Nation when Sokka left, hoping to do some good in the still politically unstable kingdom. After all, if she had managed to help disguised as the Painted Lady and while on the run from the Fire Nation, she could certainly do it as a close friend of the Fire Lord himself!

So far she’s done alright. She helped set up the hospital in Caldera City, and is working closely with Uyuli, the head medic, on healing veterans.

However, her successes in the city don’t translate to the dance floor.

“You’re terrible at this!” Zuko hisses. She knows what he’s doing. He’s sensed her discomfort and is lightening her stress in the only way he knows- aggravating her.

Katara sniffs and turns up her nose. “Well, excuse me for not being able to fit in dance lessons while being chased around the world by a crazy firebender.”

Zuko smirks. “Crazy? I think you’ve gone soft. What happened to jerkbending asshole fiery idiot?”

Katara smiles sweetly and stomps on his foot.

“Ow!”

“Sorry,” she giggles innocently. “I really do need to work on my dancing skills.”

_ii. morning_

They bow to each other, leaning over in the traditional pose.

Katara stands and faces Zuko, breathing a little quicker than normal. Whether it’s from the dance or from the Fire Lord, who she's recently been noticing has very nice eyes, she doesn’t know.

She doesn’t want to think too hard on that, as figuring her feelings out means she’ll have to address them, and that could ruin the strange, tenuous bridge they’ve built.

“Thanks for the dance, Zuko.”

He smiles. “No problem.” His hazy golden eyes narrow mischievously. “But you may want to start seriously looking into dance lessons. I don’t think my poor feet can take much more.” He sticks out a shiny black shoe, and yes, Katara grumbles to herself, there may be a scuff mark or two, but he can’t prove it was her.

“If you’ll consider digging into the royal coffers to pay for it, I’ll consider taking them,” she says, and goes to smack him gently on the shoulder before realizing they’re in the middle of the dance floor, and any movement she makes will be gossiped over. Instead, she just pats him awkwardly on the shoulder and walks off to find some refreshments. For some reason talking to Zuko has her feeling very hot.

Must be a firebender thing, she muses to herself as she walks away.

_iii. noon_

They spin around slowly in the center of the room.

Katara’s head is nestled on his chest, her hair pulled up in a traditional fire nation style rather than her signature hair loops. It tickles his chin, but Zuko isn’t complaining.

“I think those dance lessons paid off,” he murmurs into her hair.

“What,” she says, turning her head to look up at him with those blue eyes, “You don’t think I was good before?”

Zuko’s not quite sure how to respond. He thinks it was a joke, but she looked kind of serious, and everyone says he’s very bad at jokes, so maybe it’s not a joke and he just doesn’t know? Either way, he needs to say something that won’t get him on her bad side. Even with just a month of courting her, he’s already learning that it’s best to stay on Katara’s good side at all times. The good side has kisses, and the bad side has mysteriously frozen tea.

“Uh-“ he hesitates. “I think you were great?”

She snorts. “Zuko, I was joking,” she says with a gentle eye roll. “I was terrible and we both know it.”

Luckily, a few Fire Nation dance lessons had really done wonders for her. He loves dancing with her now, her moves matching everyone else’s, but with the added grace of a waterbender. These formal dances may be very far from the tribal dances of the South, but Katara manages to imbue both with her sleek movements.

He could dance with her all night. Maybe he will.

It’s proper to only do one dance with a girl, two if the man is courting her, but Zuko’s already on three and he’s in heaven, no matter the dark looks his advisor shoots him across the dance floor.

_iv. midday_

Katara looks beautiful in white. He’s always thought so, even when they were just war-scarred kids playing in the water at Ember Island.

But today- seeing her in white, knowing it’s because she’s agreed to stay with him, be with him forever- she looks even more gorgeous than usual.

They bow to each other, her robes sweeping the floor. They’re cut in the traditional Fire Nation style, but decorated in Southern Water Tribe symbols. The symbols on her robes match the ones on the linings of his, with the addition of Fire Nation symbols as well.

He straightens and holds out his hand. Clasping it, Katara smiles at him, and they’re off, whirling around as the music swells. They’re alone on the dance floor, but all around them, lining the edges of the room, are people.

There’s Sokka, cheering obnoxiously and pumping a fist while Suki tries to calm him down. When he catches Zuko’s eye, he makes a threatening face, and Zuko has to hold in a laugh. Aang’s in the corner with Ty Lee, teaching her an Air bender dance, and he smiles at them with no resentment over the long ago relationship. Toph- well, Toph looks like she’s scamming a group of stuffy nobles out of their money, but Zuko really hopes he’s wrong about that. Hakoda is sobbing happily in the corner, and Bato is handing him tissues while working on a plate of komodo-chicken. Iroh is over at the table of teas that they set up just for him, sipping on a cup while watching the two dance. He winks at Zuko, and mouths something that looks like “Get it, nephew,” but Zuko was looking through his bad eye, so he could be mistaken.

But Zuko doesn’t spend too much time looking around him after that. Not when he has the love of his life right in front of him.

_v. afternoon_

Katara’s laughing at him. Zuko knows she is, but it’s worth it. Both the laughter, and the sore back he’ll have later.

“Again, again Daddy!” Izumi yells as she jumps up and down. The braid Izumi’s long-suffering maid Jin had worked so hard to make earlier is falling out, sending tendrils of hair all around her face.

Zuko holds out his hands to his daughter. “Okay, but this is the last time.” She pouts, but acquiesces. Grabbing her hands, he spins around so she’s lifted off the ground, and they spin as she laughs and laughs. Slowing down, he places her back on the ground.

Kya, their other daughter, runs over, pulling little Lee behind her, stumbling on his chubby legs. “Dad, do me too!!!” Katara follows them, slower, smirking at the grimace he’s trying so hard to hide.

“Yes Zuko, do them too.”

“Sure, _darling,”_ he grumbles, as Kya throws herself at him. “I’ll be sure to remind you of this when you have to waterbend me back from the brink of death out of exhaustion.”

“You do that,” she says sweetly, smiling evilly.

It’s times like these that Zuko wants to tie her to a tree again. Maybe then she wouldn’t feel so cocky about making him lift the kids for hours.

_vi. twilight_

Zuko rubs circles on the back of Katara’s hand. She’s leaning against him heavily, but she’s so light and frail that he barely feels it. Their children, all grown up, are dancing in front of them, and their grandchildren roam around among the crowd, excited to be staying up past their bedtimes. All rules are broken on this night, the anniversary of the Great Peace.

He almost can’t believe it’s been seventy years since then. Since the war, since he became Fire Lord, since they were all forced to grow up before their time. He wonders sometimes if without the war, he’d have been happier. He certainly would have had a better childhood. But then he looks around, and he sees everything. The citizens he rules over with a fair hand, the family he watches grow everyday- and her. Katara. She’s been by his side through it all.

The woman in question pokes his side.

“Hey. Whatcha thinking about?”

He smiles at her. She’s beautiful, even with wrinkles and grey hair. She’s reverted to styling it with hair loops again in her old age. He likes it, likes to play with the little beads and flick at the strands of hair to annoy her.

“Nothing. I’m just happy.”

Her face softens, and she pats his cheek, stroking his beard. For all that she says she hates his beard, she plays with it a lot.

“Dance with me,” she says, and he helps her up.

They stay near the side, ready to make it back to a chair if she gets tired, and he’s supporting most of her weight, but Zuko loves it. It reminds him of the days when she was first learning how to dance, and had to stay close to him in order to avoid tripping over her feet. They sway slowly, moving back and forth, not paying attention to the rhythm of the music. They’re in their own world, drifting somewhere in their memories.

_vii. dusk_

The ballroom is too bright, the people too loud. Zuko slips out of the room, pardoned from making excuses because people don’t expect it from the aging Fire Lord. He leaves a lot, nowadays, finding spots to be alone. The turtleduck pond is one of his favorites, and so is the smaller, private library, but this balcony is good too, and easier to get to from the ballroom.

He walks out into the night, robes swishing and pooling around his feet. It’s a cool night. Summer is clinging on by a thread, and soon the palace will become quiet again, with the children in lessons all day.

For now, though, there is laughter and music floating out to him on the breeze.

Zuko walks over to the edge of the balcony, leaning his elbows on the stone as he looks up at the moon. Sokka told him once that he had dated the moon. Zuko had privately been disbelieving, but when asked, Katara had backed him up. “It’s true,” she’d said. “Her name was Yue. She was sweet. You know-“ and here she’d sighed quietly, melancholic, “I talk to her sometimes. I say hello, and ask her to tell my mother my messages.”

Zuko looks out into the night. His land is splashed in pale moonlight, making everything look mysterious and ethereal.

He lifts his head back, gazing at the moon.

“Hello, Yue. Please, pass my message on to Katara.” He pauses, choked up slightly. It’s been two years, but he still can’t think of her without feeling that tightening in his chest. “Katara. I miss you, my love. It’s not the same without you here. The- the children miss you. You saw Lee’s daughter? They named her after you. She’s beautiful. She’s so young that they don’t know if her eyes will remain, but for now, they are your blue.” The moon is blurred, obscured by a mist of unshed tears. “I wish you could meet her. I wish you were here. One last dance would be nice.” He stops, too choked to continue.

The moon seems to smile down at him. Music from the ballroom drifts out to the balcony, and Zuko smiles through the pain as he takes up the position for their favorite dance. Bowing to the air, he straightens and begins to dance, holding his arms out in midair for an imaginary partner.

As the music comes to a close, and faint applause begins, Zuko swears he sees an image of Katara, young and happy, standing in his arms for the split second before he blinks, and the apparition vanishes.

He smiles at the moon, content.

_viii. midnight_

Zuko startles awake. There’s a wind blowing from somewhere, rustling the silver grasses that surround him.

Sitting up, he feels lighter than he has in a long time. There’s a dark blue sky in front of him, with unknown constellations. Besides that, he sees nothing but silver fields as far as the eye can see.

“Hey jerkbender.” He jumps. He’s almost afraid to turn around, his heart beating out of his chest, but he forces himself to look.

Katara smiles at him, her blue eyes bright in a face once again free of wrinkles. She looks exactly as she did when they were young, in their twenties and free of care.

He can hardly bring himself to speak, afraid that if he speaks, some magic will be broken and he’ll wake up in bed, alone and old.

“Katara?” The world doesn’t crumble around him. “Is this real?”

“Real as ever.”

He looks down at himself. He’s wearing his favorite robes, but they fit a body that is youthful and strong. His hands are smooth and blemish free. Clenching his hand, he tries to conjure a flame. Nothing appears.

“The spirit world?” Katara nods. “I’m dead?”

“Yes.” For some reason, he’s not sad. It’s probably because he’s finally back where he belongs. With Katara. “Zuko.”

“Yeah?”

“Dance with me. I’ve been waiting for too long for you to meet me here.” Her eyes sparkle. He laughs and grabs her outstretched hand, and she pulls him to her.

They dance, and just like that, they are young again.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that's that! I'm kinda stunned: this is the end of my first fandom week. I did it, even though I procrastinated the heck out of it. But it's done, and just in time for my birthday in two days! 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you all liked it! Comments and kudos are appreciated, and I can be found on Tumblr at pipthemagnificentwrites.


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